An analysis of industries in the United States by the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), the White House agency that advises the president on economic trends, has found that newspapers are America's fastest-shrinking industry.
A quick look at the winners and losers can be found on the Linkedin blog. Scroll down the list to the very bottom and there is the newspaper industry, down by 28.4% over five years.
It is a depressing statistic, picked up by Robert Niles on his online journalism blog and prompting him to ask: "Is any university in America still admitting students as print journalism majors?"
He goes on to register his amazement: "Everyone in the business knew that newspapers were shrinking, but dead last? And dead last in a down economy?"
But he turns then to the positive stats. "Take a look at the top three growing industries over the past five years.
"There's the internet at number two and online publishing at number three.
"That's the future of journalism education right there - fulfilling the growing need for instruction and guidance in profitable and community-building communication in the growing online publishing media."
He doesn't think US journalism faculties are up to speed on online teaching. So what about British j-schools? Are we doing enough, I wonder.
Sources: CEA/Linkedin blog/OJR
